How do you reopen a closed tab in Chrome?
Ctrl + Shift + T — Reopen Tab
Ctrl + Shift + T (Cmd + Shift + T on Mac) reopens the most recently closed tab, and pressing it repeatedly walks back through earlier closed tabs. It also restores a closed window if that was the last thing closed.
Related Chrome shortcuts: Tab Management
| Shortcut | Action | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Ctrl + T | New Tab | Open new tab. |
| Ctrl + W | Close Tab | Close current tab. |
| Ctrl + Shift + T | Reopen Tab | Reopen last closed tab. |
| Ctrl + Tab | Next Tab | Switch to next tab. |
| Ctrl + Shift + Tab | Previous Tab | Switch to previous tab. |
| Ctrl + 1-8 | Go to Tab | Jump to specific tab (1-8). |
| Ctrl + 9 | Last Tab | Jump to last tab. |
| Ctrl + Shift + A | Search Tabs | Search through open tabs. |
| Ctrl + N | New Window | Open new browser window. |
| Ctrl + Shift + N | Incognito | Open incognito window. |
From the Chrome reference (50 entries) · all how-to answers
How far back it goes
Chrome keeps the recently closed list per window, and each press of Ctrl + Shift + T restores the next-most-recent entry — a tab, or a whole window with all its tabs if that was what closed last. The list survives for the session; after Chrome restarts, History (Ctrl + H) is the place to look, and "Continue where you left off" in settings restores the last session automatically.
Tab search and history
Ctrl + Shift + A opens tab search, which lists open tabs across windows and, below them, recently closed ones with a search box — faster than pressing the shortcut repeatedly when the tab was closed a while ago. Right-clicking the tab strip offers "Reopen closed tab" for the same action with the mouse. Ctrl + H opens full history, searchable by title and URL.
Incognito and other browsers
Tabs closed in an incognito window are not kept anywhere and cannot be reopened; that is the point of the mode. Edge, Brave and Opera use the same shortcut; Firefox uses it too but keeps a separate "Recently closed windows" entry, and Safari uses Cmd + Z immediately after closing.
Pinned tabs and groups
A pinned tab that is closed reopens unpinned, and a closed tab group comes back as a group entry in the recently closed list with all its tabs. Bookmarks are the durable alternative for tabs you mean to keep: Ctrl + D bookmarks the current page and Ctrl + Shift + D bookmarks every open tab into a folder, which is the way to park a research session rather than trusting the closed-tab history.
When the shortcut does nothing
If Ctrl + Shift + T has no effect, an extension may have claimed the key (check chrome://extensions/shortcuts), or focus is in a page element such as a text editor that swallows the shortcut — click the tab strip and try again. In a window with nothing closed yet the list is empty by design. On Chrome OS the same key works, and on a Mac the combination is Cmd + Shift + T.